The Iranian regime has been an enemy to freedom of speech for decades but on Sunday, September 23, 2012, they still surprised many by announcing that they would begin filtering Google and Gmail in the next hours.

Meanwhile some speculate that the true reason for blocking Google has more to do with promoting the so called Iranian “national Internet” which was supposed to become operational on 22 September, but has so far not appeared.

Cutting off access to Google Search essentially pushes a significantly larger population towards looking for ways to be able to get around the filtering regime. A result of this process is not necessarily a “better” or “more free” Internet, but, nevertheless, the current course of action is not going to help the Iranian establishment either. They are pushing people towards a more vigilant approach to the Internet. They are telling people “go learn how to use a VPN”, and I foresee that being exactly what is going to happen.

A Facebook campaign has launched to call for Internet freedom and the right to access Google. Mana Neyestani's cartoon (right) on Google being filtered is eye-catching on this Facebook page.

Several Iranian netizens also tweeted about the filtering with irony. Behran Tajdin tweeted [fa]:

@Behrang: This “public” who requested Google filtering, did they not have gmail accounts? If they had, what do they use them for?

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[…] to control more and more the Iranian internet world. On Sunday, September 23, 2012, the regime surprised many by filtering Google and Gmail for a short period of time. Regime called its decision based […]